Spectrometer development

Researchers Martin Piltch MST-6, Perry Gray D-6, Robert Carpenter MST-6, Professor Richard Rubenstein SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Department of Emerging Neurological Disease invented, built and tested a high sensitivity fiber-optics spectrometer (SOFIA) for the antemortem measurement of femtomolar concentrations of prions. These proteins are responsible for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and Creuzfeld-Jacob disease in humans. In 2010 the fiber-optics spectrometer was granted a United States Patent (#7,847,941). There are several published papers on the topic in peer-reviewed journals and three additional U.S. patent applications pending.